Starting this week, Durham City Manager Tom Bonfield will spend the next two months reviewing and evaluating each of the 44 recommendations to address issues of racial profiling at the Durham Police Department, according to a letter Bonfield sent to City Council yesterday. Bonfield will have a full report for City Council no later than the Aug. 21 work session, and possibly as early as Aug. 7.

Chief Jose Lopez has consistently denied that his department engages in racial profiling. After three DPD-related shootings last year in which three people died, the Durham District Attorney did not charge any of the officers with a crime.

Bonfield said he will also confer with the city attorney's office on the legality, both state and local, of some of the recommendations.

"If during the course of this review it becomes apparent and within my authority to direct its implementation, I will do so immediately," Bonfield wrote. "Other recommendations that may sustain concurrence but are outside of my authority will need to come back to the City Council for consideration. Also, it is reasonable to expect that some recommendations ... will not receive my concurrence."

Last month, Bonfield told City Council he would "personally lead the review of the recommendations."

"I take the concerns raised by the community, as well as those raised by advocacy organizations, very, very seriously and recognized the necessity for a trusting relationship between the Durham community and the Durham Police Department."